{"id":276964,"date":"2025-08-28T00:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T00:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/276964\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T00:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T00:52:11","slug":"blue-jays-deadline-flub-haunting-playoff-push-blue-jays-bullpen-will-be-their-downfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/276964\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Deadline Flub Haunting Playoff Push Blue Jays Bullpen Will be their downfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

After finishing with the second-worst bullpen ERA in baseball last season to the Colorado Rockies, the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> are heading down the stretch of 2025 with the second-worst bullpen ERA since the All-Star Break, next to\u2026 the Colorado Rockies. <\/p>\n

Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

Did the Blue Jays flub the trade deadline by not acquiring elite bullpen help? <\/p>\n

Yes, the names are new this season, but the results, at least of late, have been the same. The bullpen is clearly the Achilles heel of this team, and if there\u2019s anything that might hold them back in the postseason, that is it. <\/p>\n

Closer Jeff Hoffman<\/a> has 28 saves, tied for 5th in the majors, but he\u2019s also blown seven. He has a 4.77 ERA, for an ERA+ of just 90 (10% below league average), and in August, he\u2019s blown half of his save opportunities (three of six).<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, specifically since the 2015 Kansas City Royals<\/a>\u2018 7th-8th-and-9th-inninged their way to a World Series title, teams around baseball have focused on loading up their bullpens as much as possible heading into the playoffs, and this year\u2019s Blue Jays should have been no different. But they were.<\/p>\n

Failure to Add Elite Bullpen Arms at Deadline<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like GM Ross Atkins<\/a> ignored the relief core at the trade deadline. He did go out and acquire Seranthony Dominguez, a hard-thrower with plenty of back-end-of-the-bullpen experience. But elite? No one has ever confused Dominguez with that superlative. And thus far with Toronto, he\u2019s been giving the Jays the full Seranthony Dominguez Experience: plenty of high-octane gas and strikeouts (11.7 K\/9), but also a high-wire act that includes his standard wildness (6.3 BB\/9), and an unimpressive 4.50 ERA in 10 innings.<\/p>\n

Louie Varland? Sure, he\u2019d put up some awesome numbers for the lowly Minnesota Twins this season (a 2.02 ERA in 49 innings, a 1.10 WHIP, with a 47:13 strikeouts-to-walks ratio). But as a high-leverage reliever? Not a ton of experience on that front. And since he\u2019s come north of the border into the pressure-packed innings of a pennant race? 6.30 ERA with a 1.70 WHIP in 10 innings. <\/p>\n

Did the Blue Jays make a mistake not adding some more \u2018sure things\u2019 to the back of their bullpen? MLB Insider Jeff Passan wondered if that \u201cis gonna be the thing that takes this magical season and turns it on its head.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was criticism about the Jays\u2019 deadline, it\u2019s that they didn\u2019t get the elite reliever they needed\u2026 Jeff Hoffman is just not working,\u201d offered Passan. <\/p>\n

Blue Jays Bullpen Dreadful Since All-Star Break<\/p>\n

Since the All-Star Break, the Toronto bullpen has a 5.74 ERA and in 75.2 August innings, has surrendered an atrocious 51 walks. \u201cThat\u2019s not a team that goes to the World Series,\u201d said Passan, bluntly.<\/p>\n

The only saving grace right now for this relief corps\u2019 very bad look is that some of the biggest names that were available at the deadline, like Ryan Helsley and Jhoan Duran, have also not exactly been tearing it up of late. <\/p>\n

The Jays would be in a completely different position if they added a guy like Ryan Helsley or Jhoan Duran to this bullpen at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Here are some hilites from those two pitchers last night to boost that argume\u2014\u2013 pic.twitter.com\/NQ2l7VaEZt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Chris Black (@DownToBlack) August 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Helsley, in fact, has a 10.38 ERA in 8.2 innings with the New York Mets in a set-up role, and while Duran has fared far better with the Philadelphia Phillies, he has a loss and a blown save in two of his last three outings. <\/p>\n

All this to say, we know that relief arms are a fickle thing in baseball. Success comes and it goes. Sometimes from season to season, sometimes from game to game. But that\u2019s even more of a reason to load up as much as possible\u2026 The more options you have complete confidence in, the better. <\/p>\n

At this point, if the Blue Jays continue to be wallowing around with the Colorado Rockies of the world in bullpen performance, it doesn\u2019t bode well for the postseason. <\/p>\n

It seems like an opportunity lost at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n